Hello!

My name is Alia Jones & this is where I blog about children’s books. Please take a look through my reviews and interviews. You can learn a lot about me on this page, or give Of Glades some love by reading the lovely interview we did in 2021, here. 

Cincinnati, Ohio is my hometown and a lot of my family migrated from the South (Alabama and Mississippi) in the 50s and 60s.

I am currently a PhD student in the School of Education at UW-Madison. I completed my Masters of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) in May 2025. I’m an “official” librarian now. Wooooo! 

I graduated from Cornell University in 2010, where I majored in Cultural Anthropology and double-minored in East Asian Studies and American Indian Studies.

While at Cornell, I interned at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in DC and worked on Indivisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas. Working on that project was incredible and a privilege. I am a Black cisgender woman (she/her) with Native ancestry (Cherokee or Choctaw, most likely) but I’m not enrolled. Diving more intimately into my family’s genealogy is a long-term project. I haven’t found any Native ancestors’ names just yet, though I talk to my Black, Indigenous and Scottish ancestors regularly. For almost twenty years, my work has centered on Black and Native peoples. For the last ten years, that work has focused on children’s literature & young peoples’ well-being.

In 2010 I moved to South Korea to teach English on a Fulbright Scholarship. I taught in Daegu, South Korea (famous for apples and satoori) at three different elementary schools. In 2014, I came home and became a children’s bookseller at two indie bookstores in Cincinnati. I fell in love with children’s literature while learning how to sell books.

I started working in libraries in 2017; public libraries (Cincinnati Hamilton County Public Library) and later academic libraries (University of Cincinnati) after I was furloughed then laid off from the public library in 2020.

In June of 2020, I completed service on the 2020 Randolph Caldecott Awards Committee. We chose THE UNDEFEATED as our medal winner with three honors (BEAR CAME ALONG, GOING DOWN HOME WITH DADDY, DOUBLE BASS BLUES). Photos below.

In June of 2022, I completed service on the 2022 Coretta Scott King Book Awards Jury. I wrote a blog post about that experience here.

In June of 2025, I completed service on the 2025 Batchelder committee. I wrote a blog post about that experience here.

I’m currently on the Board of Directors for ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children). I will serve in this role until 2028.

Our 2020 Caldecott winners are featured in the slideshow below. I get so much joy seeing these books.

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Here are a few articles/reviews/interviews/talks I’ve done online:

Youtube Panel: “The Colorline Belts the World”: Race, U.S. Empire, and Children’s Literature

Black Joy Booklist

Native YA: Four Native American Authors Discuss Their Stories and Messages for Teens (SLJ)

Calling Caldecott: We are Grateful Otsaliheliga

Publishers Weekly (ShelfTalker) Black Books for Black Kids

Calling Caldecott: Leave Me Alone!

Nerdy Book Club: Review of the book OWEN by Kevin Henkes

To contact me directly, please fill out the form below. I’ll be in touch with you as soon as possible. Due to being busy with grad school, I’m not taking requests to review books at the moment.

Thanks for visiting my blog!